YP Letters: Diet advice fuelling curse of diabetes

TYPE 2 Diabetes is a modern day scourge. It may cause blindness and damage to the blood circulation, which can result in the amputation of limbs. People with diabetes have an increased risk of developing heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease and many cancers.

Over three million cases were diagnosed in England in 2012. If present trends are maintained as many as one in two people could be affected.

The official line of the NHS is that there is no cure for diabetes, which means that a person’s health will continue to deteriorate and it will be necessary to be treated with drugs.

A key aspect of the advice given by the mainstream health care professionals is that the fat content of the diet should be restricted and that starchy foods such as pasta should be consumed regularly.

This is sheer lunacy. Type 2 Diabetes is caused by excess glucose in the blood. Some of this is from the sugar in the diet. However, the other main source is starch, which is broken down during digestion to release glucose.

Foods rich in starch include bread, potatoes, rice and pasta... precisely those foodstuffs being recommended to patients with Type 2 Diabetes.

The big problem is that this is simply not working. Patients who follow this advice do not get better. The vast majority continue to deteriorate and may well become very seriously ill as many have found to their cost.

The other side of the coin is that many people have discovered for themselves that the disease can be controlled, possibly even cured, by consuming a diet which is high in healthy fats and has a low content of starchy foods.

In other words, they do exactly the opposite of the official advice.

There are now thousands of individuals who have transformed their lives because they have altered their diet to limit the amount of glucose entering the blood stream. This has been confirmed by reliable research.

In the meantime those who are oblivious to this life-saving information continue to suffer.

Although this knowledge is fully substantiated, the “great and the good” in the medical/healthcare professions remain in denial and are unwilling to make the necessary changes in policy and strategy.

This is a national scandal of enormous proportions. The politicians are hopeless and are incapable of exerting control.

The good news is that more and more are finding out for themselves that it is relatively easy to adjust to a diet low in carbohydrates and high in fats.

Within a very short time, most realise that their health has improved significantly.

Make care a resolution

From: Mike Padgham, Chair, Independent Care Group, Scarborough.

ASIDE from the usual New Year resolutions about diets, saving money and stopping smoking – could we add some for the care of our oldest and most vulnerable citizens for 2017?

It feels as though we tried everything in 2016 but are no further forward.

So for 2017 can we make it a resolution to address the funding of social care properly and have a root and branch overhaul of the sector? Can we stand as an MP or as a local councillor to raise the issue from within?

It would also be great if we could have incentives for providers to join the social care sector or invest in the future of their businesses. How about a VAT break to start with?

And as the independent sector provides the most flexible and cost-effective social care delivery, how about giving it greater involvement in decision making on the future of social care, within government?

Social care faces a £2.8bn shortfall and unless we do something urgently, 2017 will see the continuation of more people going without care, care homes closing and domiciliary care providers handing back unsustainable contracts or leaving the market.

We made a good start in 2016 and politicians started to take notice of a noisy river of protest. In 2017 we have to turn that river into a torrent!

Diana grief began trend

From: Brian H Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.

WELL into her otherwise brilliant piece (“Time that we got celebrity deaths into perspective”, The Yorkshire Post, December 29) Jayne Dowle momentarily strikes a dissonant note. After identifying the public grief for musicians David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Rick Parfitt and George Michael as self-indulgence, she states that “nothing could have been as moving as the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales”.

But isn’t that where it all started? Didn’t that mawkish display, orchestrated by Tony Blair in memory of a fellow photo shoot opportunist, mark the end of the legendary English stiff upper lip; the end of an era where we really grieved only for our nearest and dearest? And privately at that.

No surprise

From: D Webb, Rothwell.

REGARDING Tom Richmond (The Yorkshire Post, December 24) and his shock horror at hot cross buns being on sale at Christmas. They are, in fact, on sale 52 weeks a year, you can also buy mince pies at Easter for the same reason.